HSNA Board Meeting Minutes - May 5, 2020

On Cinco de Mayo, your HSNA board spent some quality Zoom time together discussing neighborhood business and hearing presentations from several developers and community representatives. Here are the minutes from that meeting.

Plan to re-use the structures on site. There may be additional 1-2 stories added to certain buildings. Another area will include a courtyard with stadium-style steps/seating.

Hazardous stuff on site: one structure is being remediated due to asbestos. Also a hazardous materials area underground that they’ll clean up (you’ll see a big hole in the ground soon).

They negotiated with Beltline on land located on the western side of property; it will become a Beltline right of way. Hoping to put a pedestrian bridge over the railroad to the Goat Farm.

Not sure if there will be a lot of paid parking. Concern is that paid parking might cause people to park for free in Howell Station (our neighborhood won’t connect directly to this development, so it may not be an issue).

Roughly 65% of the mature magnolias are slated for removal. They will plant more trees than are currently on the site.

Plan to re-design intersection at Lowry and W Marietta into a “T” as opposed to the current “Y”.

The historical cannon ball marker is on their property. They will most likely get rid of it, not sure what to do with it. Civil War era marker depicting where General Hood transferred the army.

Rezoning efforts.

We got a green light from Keyetta Holmes to begin active re-zoning; they are working on legislative language. Next steps will be to adequately document our contacts of property owners to inform them about the attempted rezoning so they have every chance to comment.

Chappell Maddox development.

32 acres adjacent to Maddox Park. The plan is for trail to connect Washington Park to Quarry Park and connect them with Beltline.

There will be some retail/commercial. Current plan is for 15% affordable apartments. The rest would be market-rate apartments. 4-story apartment buildings (could be 3-story) 242 townhomes, 450 apartments between all four buildings. A few small cottages will surround a community urban garden.

Do we want to expand MADDOX PARK? Let Adam Brock know so he can act appropriately.

Treasurer’s report.

$72,605. In Friends of Howell Station acct

$6,614 in operating account

$492 in our Howell station savings acct.

Neighborhood Dues- very low. We should do another push -- A handout to drop in the mailbox? We can look at asking for dues on the new Howell Station website.

Pocket park.

$1,125 for the public park grant. We can think of how to spend that $$ and Chad will send an email to work out.

Small pocket park at Marietta and Brady will include a planter bench, bistro table, trash can, bike tune up station and bike racks. All from city of Atlanta. Permitting bike lanes on Brady as well, and hope at some point to expand bike lane down west Marietta.

Howell station website

New, improved and very functional.

We’ll have blog posts and meeting minutes from board meetings.

Quick links to upcoming events. Registration links for those events and links to more information about our Knight Park expansion projects.

Howell Station market. A way for people to purchase Howell Station merchandise on line!

You can pay dues directly on the website.

It’s live but not connected to our domain name.

Kudos

Kudos to Sara for Easter egg hunt.

Kudos to Naomi for food trucks.

Events

Taste of Howell Station is cancelled. As coronavirus unfolds will decide about re-scheduling.

Our annual silent auction fundraise is usually in June. Any ideas on how to do virtually?

Concern – unfair to ask businesses for donations right now. They are struggling to survive. Look for fundraising that doesn’t solicit so much auction support. Maybe modify/re-schedule Taste of Howell Station? We could poll neighbors on the website. Needs to feel like a safe activity.

Knight Park updates.

Playground – it’s done. Not sure when it’s officially open. City is going to replace the fence. The bottom of the slide is pretty steep. It’s being looked at.

Next steps for library. Need a contractor to help take the demo bricks from the pavilion and put it into our design for the library. Maybe leverage remaining park pride funding with additional funds or ask Antonio for $$. Bricks must come from the pavilion & we need demolition permits.

CID grant for the bridge. Need to demo the bridge; $8,000 to build the new one. Need to find a design everyone likes.

Tennis court. Wants to get contractors to get ideas to re-do the fence, re-stripe it.

Miscellaneous

Create generic emails – for president and treasurer – maybe President@HowellSation. This generic email will have all old correspondence for new officers to read when they take over.